46 DAILY STAR, Friday, November 5, 2010

A flightof fancy

REVEALED: SECRETS OF THE BLUEST MOVIE EVER MADE

■ MOVIE MAGIC: The Avatar crew

set up the shots and what we see is Na’vi heroine Zoe Saldana in the alien jungle

SCI-FI spectacular Avatar broke the mould for special effects AND box offi ce records.

Now director James Cameron is preparing to make a new out-of-this-world tale of the plucky blue aliens.

And as he prepares his next Avatar spectacular – which he promises will be bigger and better than the fi rst – he invited the Daily Star over to LA for an exclusive sneak peek behind the scenes.

Arriving at the studios, we fi nd Cameron, 56, looking through a lens at people dressed up in bizarre spandex suits run-ning around in front of a green backdrop.

This is how the 3D spec-tacular was created.

He uses a motion-capture camera to watch the actors and, thanks to incredible technology, what he sees are Avatars and the scenery the fi lm is famous for. Computer wiz-ardry means doz-ens of staff can be helping out in the scene, but all the director sees is the actor in character.

Dotted all over

the studio are props from Avatar, including intricate jewellery worn by the Na’vi – the aliens from the movie – to the 12-foot-tall suits used by the actors to create their Na’vi selves and even fl y.

Cameron says: “Avatar is the most challenging fi lm I’ve made. It’s new terrain. It’s really tough to grasp.

“I’ve always tried to push the enve-lope but this time it pushed back. I

liken the experience of making Avatar to jumping off a cliff and knitting the parachute on the way down.

“We knew that we were going to take CGI character creation

further than it had been before. “We wanted an authentici-

ty emotionally and visu-ally. So we had to develop

some new technology to be able to do that

and then we had to prove it worked.”

Cameron, re-sponsible for the two highest-grossing movies ever in Avatar

and Titanic, has brought out a new

Blu-ray edition of his sci-

fi masterpiece stuffed with behind-the-scenes material.

But it’s not just the big guns push-ing the boundaries.

Just outside Austin, Texas, is Troublemaker Studios, the home of moviemaker Robert Rodriguez, 42, and his team.

Despite being more than a thou-sand miles from Tinseltown, Trou-blemaker has brought us movies like Sin City and Death Proof and this year’s sci-fi hit Predators, another of the fi lms expected to make it big on Blu-ray this coming festive season.

Troublemaker is like a mini Los Angeles where they do pretty much everything themselves.

When we fi rst arrive, we’re given a tour and spot the bright yellow Ford Mustang from Death Proof, a life-size model of Sin City’s Marv and remote controlled Predator heads.

If you look at Troublemaker on Google Earth, you can see the huge hunting camp from Predators domi-nating their back lot.

The fi lm had a much more hands-on approach than Avatar. Some 1.5million silk leaves were hand-stitched to model trees and all the creatures were built from scratch.

But the result adds up to the same thing – pure movie magic.●Predators and The Alien Anthology are available on Blu-ray now. Avatar Extended Collector’s Edition is released on Blu-ray on November 15 from Twentieth Century Fox.

by ANDY GIBBONS

WIZARD: Cameron

DAILY STAR, Friday, November 5, 2010 47

DVDs with ALAN FRANKSMALL SCREEN

★ ALAN FRANK’S DVD SLOT ★

★ TOP 10 ★

1 (-) IRON MAN 2 2 (-) GET HIM TO THE GREEK 3 (1) ROBIN HOOD 4 (3) PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME 5 (4) KILLERS 6 (5) THE GHOST 7 (7) SHUTTER ISLAND 8 (2) KICK-ASS 9 (8) THE BACK-UP PLAN 10 (10) DEATH AT A FUNERAL

★ TOP 10 UK FILMS ★ 1 (-) SAW 3D £3.6m 2 (2) DESPICABLE ME £2.5m 3 (1) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 £1.8m 4 (3) RED £1.1m 5 (4) THE SOCIAL NETWORK £1m 6 (-) BURKE AND HARE £942,894 7 (5) LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: OWLS £502,951 8 (6) ALPHA AND OMEGA £458,812 9 (-) THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT £411,960 10 (7) VAMPIRES SUCK £313,911

© EDI-FACTS

★ TOP 10 US FILMS ★ 1 (-) SAW 3D $24.2m 2 (1) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 $16.5m 3 (3) RED $10.7m 4 (2) JACKASS 3D $8.5m 5 (4) HEREAFTER $6.4m 6 (6) SECRETARIAT $5m 7 (5) THE SOCIAL NETWORK $4.5m 8 (7) LIFE AS WE KNOW IT $4m 9 (9) THE TOWN $1.9m 10 (-) CONVICTION $1.8m

© EDI-FACTS

ALAN’S VERDICTGET HIM TO THE GREEK: THE EXTENDED PARTY EDITION (15) (Universal Pictures)ELEPHANTS couldn’t upstage his wedding and nothing overshadows Russell Brand’s ripe reprise of his foul-mouthed self-adoring substance-abusing British rock star from Forgetting Sarah Marshall in this disgracefully funny show.

VERDICT: 8/10

THECHARTSHOW

TOP TIPREVENGE OF THE CREATURE (PG) (Final Cut Entertainment DVD)THE Creature From The Black La-goon created a classic celluloid mon-ster that was so successful at scaring the living daylights out of movie-goers that a sequel was inevitable.

This time around Gill-man, having survived a hail of bullets and being captured at the end of the fi rst fi lm, lands up in a laboratory in Florida where, fancying a female scientist, he escapes and does what a monster has to do.

The Creature From The Black La-goon director Jack Arnold racks up excellent chills, thrills and shocks. Look out for Clint Eastwood wearing a white coat as a lab assistant.

VERDICT: 7/10

FAMILY CHOICEIT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: SPECIAL EDITION (U) (Universal Pictures Blu-ray/DVD)THERE could be no better choice than James Stewart (who was mak-ing his fi rst movie after active serv-ice in World War Two) to star in this

Christmas classic, which rightly earned him an Oscar nomination.

Stewart’s charm and emotional power to affect audiences were never more evident and enjoyable than they are here playing a small-town businessman who, feeling he has nothing to live for, is prevented from killing himself by an angel.

VERDICT: 10/10

BEST BUY FANTASIA/FANTASIA 2000: DOUBLE PACK (U) (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Blu-ray 29.99) FANTASIA (U) (Blue-ray 22.99)WALT Disney’s classic cartoon fea-ture Fantasia still makes marvellous entertainment 70 years after it broke all records in cinemas with its unique blend of masterly animation and classical music.

For added enjoyment, the double pack features the superb sequel Fan-tasia 2000. This has a fascinating blend of state-of-the-art animation and great music plus celebrity hosts such as Steve Martin, Bette Midler and Angela Lansbury.

VERDICT: 10/10

ECHARTSHOW

BANISH the winter blues as the funniest comedy of the year comes to DVD – Get Him To The Greek.

The side-splitting fi lm sees Rus-sell Brand, 35, as washed-up druggie singer Aldous Snow of rock band Infant Sorrow.

We’ve teamed up with Universal Pictures to offer a Daily Star reader a Sony DVD player, Get Him To The Greek: The Extended Party Edition DVD and an Infant Sorrow T-shirt.

BabeNine runners-up win a Get Him To

The Greek: The Extended Edition DVD and Infant Sorrow T-shirt.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer this question.

Which pop babe did Russell Brand recently marry? Rihanna, Britney Spears or Katy Perry.

Call 0907 181 2748 or text DSFILM followed by your answer, name and address details to 86660.

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UP FOR GRABS: Brand is in top form

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